Steve Clemons says that John F. Kennedy was "a hard core Cold War hawk" who "approved the invasion of other nations and approved of regime change as a tool of American foreign policy." This is a serious distortion of American history and a slur on the full record of the Kennedy presidency. Within months of taking office, President Kennedy -- despite his doubts -- allowed the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba mounted by Cuban emigres to receive U.S. air support. Its failure taught him the perils of American military involvement in "regime change." He would never have attempted the kind of pre-emptive full-scale military attack on another country that Bush performed in Iraq. And as for being a "Cold War hawk," if that were true, President Kennedy could never have called for negotiations on a nuclear arms test ban with the Soviet Union, at the height of the Cold War, and in the same speech, call for a new era of "world law." That speech was delivered 45 years ago at American University, where tomorrow Edward and Caroline Kennedy will endorse and embrace Senator Barack Obama. They know the Kennedy legacy better than anyone. We should trust their judgment.
posted 01/27/2008 at 23:47:19
posted 01/27/2008 at 23:47:19
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